provided exclusively to 蜜桃影视 by EdChoice, a school choice advocacy group, shows 58% of teachers ranked communication with students and 52% listed observing their behavior as the most important ways to gauge how well they鈥檝e done in school. In contrast, 44% cited grades on tests, quizzes and homework and just 17% said they turned to standardized tests.

Teachers also believe that student reflections and completed projects are the strongest evidence of well-developed durable skills 鈥� like teamwork and adaptability 鈥� while parents are more divided: They鈥檙e twice as likely (24%) to value standardized test scores as a metric of success in that realm. 

鈥淎s a researcher, I have a belief 鈥� that standardized tests and optimizing for grades is becoming less important now than soft skills, durable skills (and) social-emotional learning,鈥� said Colyn Ritter, an EdChoice research analyst.

The organization鈥檚 annual survey released during also found that while about half of teachers believe K-12 education is going well at their local school district, only a quarter feel optimistic about it at the national level.

EdChoice partnered with Morning Consult to conduct an online survey of just over 1,000 K-12 teachers in April. The majority of respondents (roughly 80%) were traditional public school teachers, 13% worked in private or parochial schools and 6% taught in charter schools.

When it comes to their outlook on the profession overall, over two-thirds of surveyed  teachers said they feel hopeful and a sense of purpose when thinking about the future. Still over a quarter feel overwhelmed, and only 22% would recommend teaching as a career to a friend or family member. 

That number varies greatly based on what kind of schools teachers work in, with those in private schools being twice as likely (35%) as those in public schools (18%) to recommend the profession.

鈥淥verall, the conversation about K-12 education might be a little bleak and teachers might feel the brunt of it, but within their own classroom, they feel more positively,鈥� said Ritter, adding that it makes sense to him that teachers can simultaneously feel a sense of purpose and dread.

鈥淣o one would be surprised to hear that a teacher is stressed out or feel(ing) overwhelmed, especially in today’s K-12 education environment, where I think they’re just being asked to do too much,鈥� he said pointing to the mounting responsibilities teachers are tasked with navigating, including students鈥� mental health, safety within their school buildings and the evolving role of technology and artificial intelligence.

Indeed, about a third of teachers report frequent behavioral and technological issues interrupting their class. While teachers are generally satisfied with their students鈥� use of tech in schools, those in public schools are much more likely to report their kids spending too much time on devices (48%) than those in private schools (27%).

Feelings about technology vary significantly based on the type: While nearly 90% of teachers support the use of online learning platforms, like Google Classroom, three-quarters oppose cell phones and just over half oppose AI tools like ChatGPT.

Teachers are more pessimistic than both the general population and parents about AI鈥檚 effects on the future, with just over half reporting some level of concern. Nearly two-thirds are opposed to letting their students use AI to assist with school work and over 40% are extremely or very concerned about the effects of the technology on learning this school year. 

Only 38% of teachers support its use in the classroom 鈥� an eight-point drop from last fall. That being said, the vast majority (72%) believe it鈥檚 important to help students build the necessary critical thinking skills to appropriately use it.

When it comes to school choice, the survey reports teachers showing strong support for Education Savings Accounts, or ESAs, which set aside public money for parents to put toward a range of educational expenses, including private school tuition, afterschool tutoring and special education therapies.

Sixty percent of teachers strongly or somewhat supported these accounts, and that jumped to 75% when they were provided with EdChoice鈥檚 very detailed definition of what constituted an Education Savings Account vs. generally asking teachers what they thought about K-12 ESAs without any explanation. Around 80% of private school teachers and those with less teaching experience expressed support. 

Across the board, teachers are more likely to believe that ESAs should be available to all families, regardless of financial need 鈥� 22 points higher than the proportion agreeing with means-tested eligibility.

Support significantly drops off for school vouchers, which allow parents to use tax dollars specifically for tuition at non-public schools, in some cases religious ones as well. Around 45% of teachers voiced general support for vouchers, which jumped slightly to just over half when they were provided with EdChoice鈥檚 lengthy definition.

The EdChoice survey found greater support for school choice among teachers than a recent poll found among the general public (59%), including the support voiced by Republicans (71%), though they did find growing favor for using public funds to provide children access to private school. 

The number of students using ESAs has skyrocketed over the past four years, from about 29,000 in 2021 to nearly 500,000 this year, according to They鈥檝e steadily grown since 2011, when Arizona created the nation鈥檚 first such program, to 21 programs in 18 states today.

EdChoice lists 15 states and Washington, D.C., as having voucher programs, which are generally considered more controversial than ESAs or tax credit scholarships and whose constitutionality teachers unions are challenging in court cases across the country.

The results come from of African American parents of school-aged children conducted by the research and polling company Morning Consult. Its findings, while capturing only a moment in time, may reflect educational preferences that have shifted significantly away from traditional public schools in the COVID era. 

Morning Consult鈥檚 survey was administered to roughly 1,300 respondents across January and February on behalf of , an Indianapolis-based advocacy group that backs school choice. During the pandemic, the organization has of parents and teachers on general perceptions of K鈥�12 education. Black adults, including parents, have been included both in those ongoing efforts and in separate surveys as districts adjusted to the demands of remote instruction and virus mitigation.

Overall, 57% of respondents said they supported education savings accounts 鈥� a financial vehicle that offers families money to spend on educational costs of their choosing 鈥� even without being provided a description of their function. Even higher proportions supported school vouchers (62%), open enrollment of public schools (66%), and charter schools (68%).

Paul DiPerna, EdChoice鈥檚 vice president of research and innovation, said he found it notable that families鈥� attitudes toward such policies have remained 鈥渇airly stable鈥� even as the circumstances surrounding schools have changed dramatically. In conducted in the fall of 2021, for example, two-thirds of African American parents said that COVID had made them more open to the idea of homeschooling; 65% said they were supportive of homeschooling today.

鈥淎t the time [of the previous poll], the pandemic looked a lot different for parents and schools,鈥� DiPerna said, invoking the Omicron wave that closed or severely disrupted schools in early 2022. 鈥淏ut some of these levels of support are still high for other modes of learning besides the traditional district school.鈥�

Black respondents in other public opinion research, including a February survey commissioned by the school choice advocacy group Yes. Every Kid., have demonstrated high levels of support for policies like vouchers and education savings accounts. Although such polls can provide substantially different findings depending on how questions are worded, African American parents鈥� somewhat more favorable attitudes toward school choice could be related to their relative satisfaction with local schools, than that of white parents in some previous polls. 

That openness to alternative modes of education could be somewhat greater than for parents of other backgrounds. In all, just 39% of African American parents said their post-pandemic preference would be for their children to spend the entire school week completely outside the home. By comparison, EdChoice鈥檚 February tracking poll of all K鈥�12 parents found that a slightly greater figure, 41%, said they favored such an outcome.

Black families have clearly demonstrated a greater willingness to experiment with learning outside traditional schools over the last few years. According to , the percentage of African American students classified as homeschoolers leapt from just 3.3% to 16.1% over the first COVID year. That explosive growth was undoubtedly powered by the adaptation to online learning, but updated federal figures are that participation in homeschooling has remained elevated among American families in the years since. 

Support for other forms of non-traditional schooling were also shown to be high, mostly in line with the attitudes of other demographic groups. Sixty-two percent of Morning Consult鈥檚 respondents said they had a favorable opinion of microschools (defined as a public, private, or homeschool learning environment that enrolls 25 or fewer students); somewhat surprisingly, 9% of respondents said their children were presently enrolled in a microschool.

Alex Spurrier, an associate partner at the nonprofit research and consulting group Bellwether Education Partners, said that while it鈥檚 difficult to gather real-time enrollment data on just how many families are experimenting with learning opportunities outside of traditional districts, the responses 鈥渟how greater interest and participation鈥� in programs like microschools.

鈥淚 think the openness and interest in some of these different options is one data point showing that there’s pretty strong demand among [African American] families for different kinds of education options than what their kids might be accessing currently.”

Black parents were also likely to say they were more involved in their children鈥檚 education than in the pre-COVID era, with 43% saying they felt 鈥渕uch more involved. Among those with annual incomes over $75,000 鈥� more than two-thirds of respondents said they were either somewhat or much more involved than before.

But the direction forward still isn鈥檛 clear. Asked whether they wanted their children鈥檚 general K鈥�12 experience to either change or stay the same, 62% said they sought some kind of change. While 38% reported that they were looking for something new, however, a sizable minority (24%) said they wanted things to revert back to the pre-COVID status quo. Just under one-quarter of parents said they preferred that schooling stay as it is now.

DiPerna said that the evidence clearly pointed to an openness to new educational experiences 鈥� either through school choice policies like vouchers and charters 鈥� or initiatives like microschools, pods and tutoring that can be implemented in a variety of settings. That curiosity exists among families of all backgrounds, he argued, and even in spite of the fact that roughly half of parents (including 57% of African American parents) said that their own local schools are on the right track.

“Even with the overall satisfaction levels with schools, you still see that there’s an underlying preference for different types of schools 鈥� non-trivial numbers, by any definition, especially if you extrapolate to the full population of students around the country.”